A variety of computer hardware and software travel planning aids is currently available on the market primarily for vacation and recreational travel planning. A number of the travel guide software packages focus on National Parks of the United States or recreational tours and activities with prepared travelogs or prepared assemblages of multimedia travel information on the different recreational geographical locations or recreational activities. Such travel software programs are exemplified for example by the America NavigaTour (TM) MediAlive (TM) multimedia travel guide produced by CD Technology, Inc.; the Great Vacations (TM) Family Travel Guide by Positive Software Solutions; the Adventures (TM) CDROM Program for worldwide adventure travel by Deep River Publishing, Inc.; and National Parks of America, a CDROM product of Multicom Publishing, Inc. which contains a directory of all National Parks in the United States.
Rand McNally produces a software travel planning product under the trademark TRIPMAKER (TM) for planning a trip by car in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The Rand McNally Tripmaker (TM) software also calculates quickest, shortest, and preferred scenic routes for the trip planner. While the Rand McNally product incorporates a database of many points of interest, the multimedia travelog information appears limited to preplanned scenic tours.
Similarly the American Automobile Association in cooperation with Compton's NewMedia also provides travel planning from starting point to destination point with stopping points in between. The CDROM product contains a database of travel information. However the multimedia information available from the database appears limited to "suggested routes of travel" again limiting user choice.
In each case it appears that travel information from multimedia sources is preassembled by editors so that the user or trip planner is limited to "canned" or prepared multimedia travelogs of prescribed, suggested, or preplanned tours. Or the user is limited to information fragments about this or that particular object of interest or this or that particular place. There is no opportunity or user capability and selectivity in constructing a user-customized travelog of assembled multimedia information for previewing a particular user determined route of travel. The user is relegated to travelogs and multimedia assemblages prepared for routes and tours proposed by other editors. The first release in July 1994 of Map'n'Go (TM) Atlas of North America on CD-ROM by DeLorme Mapping Freeport Me. 04032 includes a version of IRMIS that limits the nodes or routable waypoints to specified intersections of selected roads and highways, and car ferry terminals.
Relatedly, there are a variety of mapping and positioning systems. One such system is a hand-held personal GPS navigation tool that has been developed by the Garmin Corporation of Lenexa, Kans. under the tradename Garmin GPS 45. The Garmin navigation tool incorporates a GPS receiver and a limited character display screen for displaying position information in alphanumeric and graphic characters. Another such system is a hand-held personal GPS navigation tool that has been developed by Trimble Navigation of Austin, Tex., under the trademark Scout GPS (TM). The Trimble navigation tool incorporates a GPS receiver and a four-line character display for displaying position information in alphanumeric characters. This hand-held GPS system can apparently display alphanumeric position information in a latitude/longitude coordinate system or a Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) coordinate system. The Trimble navigation tool can apparently also display proprietary coordinate system information for locating the position of a user on a standard topographic map. The Trimble GPS navigation tool displays in alphanumeric characters the horizontal and vertical coordinate distances of the user from the southeast corner or southeast reference point of any standard topographic map.
A disadvantage of the Trimble GPS navigation tool is that it provides a display of coordinate system data only in alphanumeric characters on a multiline LCD display. The user must then perform mathematical measurements and operations to determine the user location on a particular topographic map. While the incorporation of GPS technology provides an improvement over dead reckoning and position estimation from topography, it necessarily requires user reference to quantitative measurements and calculations. Furthermore, the Trimble navigation device does not provide communications access to other geographical information databases for updated information on geographical objects in the spatial area of interest or communications access to other software tools for map analysis and reading. More generally, the Trimble navigation device does not provide a communications dimension for the map reading system.
Silva Sweden AB and Rockwell International USA have developed a hand-held GPS compass navigator for use on any standard map. The GPS compass navigator incorporates a GPS receiver for locating the user on any standard map. A built-in "compass" gives range and bearing from the known user position to a specified destination. This information is updated on the GPS compass navigator as the user progresses toward the destination. The GPS navigator is described as being in the form of a guiding "puck" that apparently rides or is moved over the standard map at the user location. It cannot display multiple geographical objects at the same time and cannot communicate with other sources of spatially related map information.
In the increasingly important field of PDAs and handheld organizers, mapping technology that resolves the desire for well-defined maps and user-selectable maps with the memory limitations associated with PDAs is becoming increasingly important. The desktop computers provide the user with the capability to select geographic areas, travel origins and destinations, points of interest along the travel route, levels of map detail for maps covering wider geographical areas, and linkage to even greater computing capability by way of on-line access. The desktop mapping available today also provides for GPS linkage for travel marking as well as the means to provide audio and textual directional information. PDA cannot to date provide such capacity. Prior attempts at enabling PDA usage in regard to selectable travel routes has been limited to single-route textual itineraries. It is therefore desirable to provide in a PDA user-selectable mapping information similar to that provided through desktop computers.